Jumpin' Jelly Beans!

This week we made a fun trip down to the Jelly Belly Factory! We took the trip with some friends and even piled all these kids (see below) and two mommies into one van. It was a great way to spend a raining day!

Right when we got in line for the train tour we were all given little bags of Jelly Belly's, the first of many jelly beans to be eaten that day.

Haley is showing off her new accessory.

The kids were really excited about the train ride. But about 3 minutes into the 30 minute tour they were asking when were they going to get more candy. (It is a candy factory!)

The four candy tasters reporting for duty!

After a major sugar rush, we figured that we should eat something...pizza! While waiting for it to cook, the kids found a photo booth and all managed to squeeze in for one picture before Haley screamed...too many boys!

There are those smiley faces! They were just thankful that their wonderful, beautiful, and young mommies took them to a candy factory!!

Here is how we ended our day. Haley has found a liking to wearing the boys' underwear over her clothes. I don't know what is funnier, her puffy booty or the pink shirt paired with Power Ranger underwear! ;)

Crazy with Construction

The city decided that our subdivision would be getting all new roads this summer. This week, it was our turn! What a cool experience to watch. All the kids, me included, spent lots of time watching the line of dump trucks file in and out while the "digger" tore up our street.

The line of 8 dump trucks starting forming right at 7am. The "worker guys" started down the street and worked their way towards our house but as 4:30pm grew closer they called it a day. They parked their "digger" right smack in front of our house for the night. After football practice we went out to explore our very own "digger!"

Sorry the pictures are so dark, fall is just around the corner.

They just loved exploring the trucks.

Let's measure how big they are compared to a digger!

This is where they stopped for the day. The boys loved playing in the hole.

The next morning (before 7am) was our turn! We camped out on our steps to watch the big day. It was great to see and oh so noisy!

Front row seats.

Best seat in the house.

We now have lots of dirt. The trucks are still bringing in truck-fulls of dirt and bulldozers are pushing it around. Looks like fun. I am not expecting any sort of black top for a couple weeks, but that will be another exciting day!

Polar Expedition

Posted by Brian

This last weekend we packed up the family 4 door cruiser, strapped on the car topper and tied down the trunk on our way to a boys camping weekend with Jacob, Tyler, Daddy and Grandpa. When we made the campsite reservation 6 months ago, here was the vision we had - End of August, camping under the warm Wisconsin sun (probably mid to low 80s), humid, perfect days for playing at the beach and swimming and doing some fishing after dinner when it cooled off and the beating sun was going down.

In reality, we hit 72 on Sunday and didn't even crack 70 the other two days and the nighttime temp hovered in the low to mid 50's. Luckily the boys sleeping bags were rated to 55 degrees, so when it got down to 52, they were only 3 degrees cold.

It was still an awesome experience and we all had a really great time.

---Insert your own imaginary picture here---

As you can see in the pretend picture above, the camping trip started out with a bang as daddy forgot to close the car topper all the way and was able to add to the Germantown landscape some pretty colors of blue (the tarp that flew across the road), yellow (the ropes that were strewn across the ditch), white (the blanket that was in the oncoming lane) and black (the 55 gallon garbage bags filled with pillows and sleeping bags). Nice huh!


Once we got there with all our luggage intact, we hit one of our fishing spots. Jacob is showing off his first catch of the trip.


Here is Tyler showing off his first catch too.

Hey Jacob, are you having fun?


One of the best parts about camping is getting to stay up way past their bedtimes. You can see the boys and Grandpa Andy found a nice little spot to catch some small rock bass.


The next morning, after thawing out, we took out the boat and headed for our spots. Here is Tyler showing off his perch. (No he is not showing off the bait)

And Jacob after he put on his lucky fishing hat, was able to wrestle in this whopper.


Later that afternoon Haley and Mommy came out to have dinner with us. Here is Haley pretending to be the captain of the ship.

Here is a shot of our campsite. (And Grandma and Grandpa doing all the heavy lifting)


Haley showing off the poison ivy purple flowers. Kidding...at least I hope I am. She didn't complain about any itchiness or pain at the time. :)

It may look like we are making s'mores, but really we are just trying to stay warm.

My little daredevil, showing off.

Not to be outdone, the boys devised their own jungle vines and were swinging across the campsite.


They boys discovered the big dipper. (notice the flannel pjs)


Tyler with his first Northern Pike. What a proud little man he was. Unfortunately we couldn't keep him, but he put up one heck of a fight for a 6 year old and at 16 inches long was a nice first one for him to catch.

Remember what I said earlier about the temperature warming up to 72? Well guess what the brainiacs decided to do when it started to swelter. Yep, we threw on shorts and hopped in the nearest river to catch crawfish with our hats and nets.

Oh look mommy, Jacob with early stages of hypothermia....

The spoils of our river adventure.

Dueling crawfish....

And how does a boy celebrate a fun filled weekend....

Bird Bonaza

The kids and I took a trip to the Milwaukee Zoo yesterday. We like to visit regularly during the summer. So on this particular visit the boys wanted to go to the special traveling exhibit that is there for only the summer..."Wings from Down Under." Here we get to go into this huge wire cage with bird food super-glued to popsicle sticks. We did it before but bad mommy forgot her camera so this time I was prepared and the kids were pro's at feeding the birds.

This is just a small sampling of what is flying all around. (I am pretty sure that my bird-fearing husband was ok with us going without him.)

I'm telling you, pro's! Tyler is on the left and Jacob on the right with two nameless birds in the middle.

The boys stretched and stretched to reach even the most stubborn birds. We were there in the morning to feed the birds, can you imagine how full these birds are by 6pm!

Of course Mini-Me wants in on the action! She was adamant about feeding the yellow one's!

Tyler so selflessly sharing his bird with his sister. Oh, how I wish there were more moments like this!

Haley was so excited and even giddy about seeing her favorite yellow bird up close!

Isn't she a brave little two year old! (braver than daddy!) Look at how proud she is of herself!

Now, by the time I took the next two pictures we had been feeding the birds for close to an hour. They were getting pretty creative and clever!

Tyler even got a couple birds to walk onto his hand and nibble at his fingers. He loved it! I think that feeding the birds is such a big deal for them because they are so allergic to feeding anything else. I know they really enjoyed being so loving to the animals and having this experience.

I just like the three ducks in a row picture. I will one day look back at this picture and say "remember when..."

Check that off the list!

We have had a fantastic summer. We did another family outing to the Brewer game yesterday. Did you see the game, home runs, home runs, home runs!!!!! The boys (of all ages) had a great time!

We finally got a great family photo! (Could be on the next x-mas card!)

Here is a group shot of the guys and girl.

Any seat is a good seat in Miller Park.

This was Haley's first Brewer game. She really enjoyed watching the people around us, the fireworks, and loved seeing Bernie go down the slide.

My little Brewer fan! No cheerleader here!

But, we do have a testing 2 year old who wanted to see how far she could go without mommy chasing her down or getting run over by a beer man.

HONK! Got your nose! :)

"Yes, it is my first Brewer game and my parent's keep making me take these ridiculous photos."

Priceless.